umpeted projections of recent opinion polls to claim that only NDA can provide a stable government after Lok Sabha elections and suggested that several regional parties, which were once its allies, could return to its fold leading to “greater NDA”. Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said the greater NDA, which Atal Bihari Vajpayee had formed, should comprise regional parties which occupy the non-Congress...

space in their states. The opinion polls, he said, projected the BJP as the front-runner and current indications show that it could surpass its previous highest tally of 183 seats. The number of Congress MPs may actually be in two digits, he said. Congress and Janata Dal(United) trashed the latest opinion polls that predicted a BJP surge, claiming there is a “political agenda” behind these surveys and that they are nothing but a “public relations campaign”. “Such surveys keep coming...there is a political agenda behind such surveys,” said senior Congress leader and Union Minister Jairam Ramesh while dismissing election surveys projecting lower seats for Congress and a surge for BJP. “Similar surveys went wrong in 2004 as well 2009 and saw Congress led UPA to power,” he told reporters. Another Union Minister Manish Tewari too debunked the poll surveys, saying those who have chosen prime ministerial candidates will sit in Opposition, a veiled reference to BJP. (PTI)